hangforum.com - The Archive

Hello Everyone,
My name is Steve Young, I am an artist (epicart .net) and webmaster (thenanoage .com & tryptamind .com). I feel that the Hang is the most beautiful and incredible instrument I have ever seen/heard. Since it is so difficult and expensive to buy a Hang, I am going to take a different route - and attempt to build a reproduction of the instrument myself!

Both science and art interest me very much, and the Hang has been aptly described as a fusion of both. It is both high-tech and archaic at once. I hope that some members of this forum will be able to help guide me in this quest. I will need your help to be successful.
Thank you,
Steve

The first question I have for the members here is, which version of the Hang would you say is the 'best' overall for sound, etc.?
~Steve

Which one?
The one that when you hear it, it speaks most powerfully to your heart...

Hi EpicArt, welcome to the forum. Is this a spontaneous idea or have you thought your plan over at length? By what you have written I don't get it. As far as I can see there are two points that don't fit to your plan:

1) Without studying a real Hang in detail. It is impossible to build a reproduction of the Hang.
2) Building a reproduction of the Hang will be much more difficult and expensive than buying a Hang

So where lies the sense of your plan?

Perhaps you should give up the idea of reproduction. If you are interested in making hand played steel instruments you should read up what you can find about steelpan and Hang making and then work at your own instrument not trying to reproduce the Hang.

Michael

Thanks for the replies! First off, I have decided on the latest model, the Free Integral Hang. I have broken down the idea into each of its separate parts, and believe I can do each. The tuning will likely prove to be the most difficult, but I believe I have a good ear for tones - we'll see! I will have to improvise the tools needed myself, which includes building both a press of ~35 tons according to a rudimentary calculation, and to form the basic structure of the Hang from a sheet of metal (does anyone know the exact type of steel sheet metal used?), and a kiln capable of reaching 600 degrees C with an internal atmosphere of ammonia. I think it will be much less expensive than buying one (if I even could), but will take a lot more work. The sense in building a hang is that the research has been done to come up with the perfect form of this instrument - which is what makes it so magical. The Hangbuilders have done decades of research to come up with their creation. I am not inventing the Hang, rather trying to make another. My plan is to contact someone who owns a Free Integral Hang and have them take pictures with dimensions of the tonefields, and top/bottom of the instrument up-close, so that I may make the same shape as a start.

I have been doing some study of steel pan drums, harmonic resonance, gas nitriding, metal forming, etc. and though it will be very difficult, I feel up to the challenge of attempting it. I am somewhat of an artist and scientist. Even if I do not succeed, I have already learned a lot, and when you try something hands on you learn even more than from reading many times... The sense of it is to have some fun trying to build a very cool instrument.

So, my next question for you all is, does anyone on this forum have a Free Integral Hang who would be willing to help me out by taking some specific photos of it!?
Thank you for your support,
Steve

Well,
The Kiln is done. I found someone who had one for sale nearby and bought it for $50. It was unmortared brick, so I was able to put it back together a little larger than it was initially. It worked out just perfectly with 22.5" width both ways and more than enough height. I am going to get some wood, charcoal, and a tiger torch to hook up to a propane tank. I will get a digital pyrometer off ebay so I can monitor the temperature closely. Just need a tank of ammonia gas now...
Steve

Wow!

Thanx!
here's a pic of the kiln:

I have found one person with a Free Integral Hang who sounds like he will be willing to take some pictures of it for me to work from - hopefully, but is there anyone here who has one of these precious instruments who may be able to help me out in this regard? I would be eternally grateful!!

Thanks for the support everyone.
Steve

I started making the hung-shaped wooden blank today for the press. I used plywood circles cut to the right size and layered together. For the lathe, I'm using an electric golf caddy turned on its side, which is working quite well. I have a lot more sanding ahead of me after work tomorrow night. Then it will get a coat of wood filler and paint, then perhaps some material stretched over it and stapled around the edges on the back... Will keep you updated.

i like your energy and wish you good luck. Your first instrument(s) will sound like a mixture of a caisa and a wok, but
if you staedy improve your skills, experiment with different material, tensions and so on migt bring at the end a wondeful sounding instrument.
I suppose, tuning is first of all not so much a question of a good ear ( there ar guitar tuner that show you how far you are from the "perfect" tone), to know where and how to use the tuning hammer is the bigger problem.
Maybe you should try to get in contact with a steeldrum tuner ( there are videos on youtube found about steelpan-tuning )
Regards Wolf

Hi Wolf et al,
Thank you for your ideas. I have been considering following the steps to create and tune a steel pan oil drum to help me get an idea how. I don't really have any idea how difficult this is going to be, but I can imagine it's not easy! I'm hoping I can learn how. I will check out more tuning videos on YouTube.

Tonight I got the sanding mostly completed. I'll use wood filler and probably a coat of sealant/paint in it tomorrow. I learned something when determining the arc, or curvature of the bottom and top shells relative to the size of the entire instrument. It is a circle with a size ratio of 1.30:1 for the shell curvature:diameter of the Hang.

I bought the sheet metal that I am going to be using, today. It is 1.21 mm thick (or 18 AWG.) I also purchased two 20 Ton bottle jacks from where I work, 150 lbs of sand, and some 2x10 and 4x4 lumber to build a Hangpress. I also found out that gas nitriding is going to be a little more challenging than I'd hoped. Will keep you updated...
Steve

hi,
always nice to stay up to date about your progress.
thank you for sharing.

I have finished building the press. I opted for 6x6 lumber for the sides, and a double 6x6 header with metal reinforcement brackets. I used the press to shape one of the sheets of sheet metal into a rippled dome. The sand backing just doesn't provide enough counter-pressure, so I have filled the bottom with concrete and pushed the wooden blank into it with a sheet of plastic in between to make it easy to separate. Once this sets up, I will have a positive and negative mold to sandwich the sheet metal between. Hopefully this results in a nice even half-hang (wok) shape. I will press the sheets tomorrow or the day after.
~Steve

New images posted:

http://infabyte.com/del/P1000915.JPG

http://infabyte.com/del/P1000929.JPG

http://infabyte.com/del/P1000941.JPG

http://infabyte.com/del/P1000951.JPG

http://infabyte.com/del/P1000973.JPG

Your determination and skills are amazing!

Mowgli

Well thanks very much Mowgli, but apparently they are not good enough, at least so far. Believe it or not, this press does not make anything close to a bowl out of sheet metal. It just wrinkled up and bent it into a disaster. Tonight I tried bolting another piece of sheet metal, fastened every inch, to the press and attempted to "deep draw" it into the shape of the molds. No cigar. It just ripped the screws out of the wood all the way along. I need to be using metal. I talked to someone today at work who works with sheet metal and suggested I could use hammers designed for the job to make the bowl shape. I don't know what I should do.

Hi Steve,
deep drawing is not an easy task. Tools and forms for deep drawing are made of steel and must be very precise. And you need very high pressure. Also you have to find out the best velocity to get good results. So quite a number of experiments are necessary. This is the reason why I wrote it would be expensive to "reproduce the Hang". Techniques and Tools for Hang building were developed by PANArt in many years and a lot of money was invested. The company that produces PANArt's raw forms is specialized to metal forming. PANArt's Hang makers don't do this themselves. They know that they need professionals for this job.

When people started building steelpans this was another situation. They used existing raw forms: steel drums. And everything that was necessary to be done could be done by a single person, the tuner. This is where Felix Rohner started 1976 when he and his friends began to build their own steelpans.

Michael

Hi Michael,
You are right, it's not easy at all. I am thinking that instead of pressing the two forms for the top and bottom, I could make them by planishing flat sheet metal into a bowl. It might take a very long time, but it still looks more feasible than pressing it. Either a pneumatic planishing hammer, or just doing it by hand (hammering into an indentation in a tree stump perhaps) may get the rough shape. Or, I could give up/try making a traditional oil drum first.
Steve